The Chicago star., September 14, 1946, Image 8

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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These steelworkers, shown coming- out of the Carnegie Illinois “Big Mill” in South Chicago provide
the key to the outcome of the November elections in the 2nd Congressional Oistrict.
South Chicago
Steelworkers are decisive in the
v unpredictable" 2nd District
By RICHARD DURHAM
THE VAST Second Congres
sional District which sweeps south
over steel mills and mixed na
tionalities has been classified by
Republican and Democratic Na
tional Committees as politically
“unpredictable.”
In 1942, its 650,000 people put
into the House a district-born
representative, Congressman Wil
liam A. Rowan.
Rowan went in and backed the
New Deal program and twice
, TV
This is the second of a se
ries of articles by Richard
Durham on the election strug
gles in each of Chicago’s ten
congressional districts.
v y
nosed out the Republican candi
date for the District, Thomas J.
Downs.
* * #
THIS YEAR the area’s indus
trialists are running against him
a manufacturer born in the com
munity, Richard B. Vail.
Rowan, a 58-year-old ex-news
paper editor sits in his office,
9138 Houston, in the shadow of
the strongly anti-Rowan Repub
lic Steel Corp., and winces at the
mention of the 79th Congress.
“It’s this way,” he says. The
79th Congress proved beyond
a doubt that there’s a growing
reactionary trend. If the people
can't counteract it by putting
in real progressive representa
tives, the future of America is
menaced.”
Rep. William A. Rowan, politically
canny and sensitive to the people's
needs, goes into the fight to prevent
big GOP money from unseating him.
ROWAN says he found about
“110 progressives in the House.”
“But about 325 were either out
right reactionaries or people
who wouldn’t go along with a
liberal program. They’d jump to
the tune of NAM or the chamber
of commerce.”
He blamed the “radio and press
for magnifying every public ir
ritant in an effort to turn us
from the Roosevelt program.
Rowan’s own policy in Con
gress has been to back the Ad
ministration’s measures without
deviation. When the Administra
tion has been progressive, so was
Rowan. When President Truman
proposed to draft workers during
the railroad strike, Rowan sup
ported him.
* # *
ROWAN’S only on
foreign policy is that he ‘*sup
ports the Administration,” but
declares that he believes domes
tic issues to be more pressing.
The Senate’s probe of war
profiteers has been “over-drama
tized” Rowan believes. The real
culprits haven’t been touched.
“I'd like to see them send
someone to .jail,” he says. “Un
less some of the profiteers go
to jail all we’re getting is a lot
of smoke. Just a melodrama.”
* * *
ROWAN says that the GOP
here had been a hopelessly re
actionary party long before The
Chicago Tribune officially took it
over. He sees little chance of
getting even liberal Republicans
to support progressive measures
because of their fear of being
driven out of the party.
“Even Baldwin of New York
an aristocrat from an aristocra
tic district—was dropped by the
Republicans simply because he
supported the OPA,” he said.
On the other hand he admits
that the presence of Dixie demo
crats in the rank of a "liberal
party is paradoxical.”
•'Every time liberal legislation
came up the Southern Democrats
got together with the Republi
cans. They egged on the Bilbos
and Rankins.”
* * #
AN alderman of the 10th ward
for 16 years, Rowan is highly
conscious ’ of the “unpredictable
status of his District, and de
pends heavily for support from
independent organizations.
His major asset has been an
almost solid pro-labor record
which has given him full sup
port from workers in the area's
industrial plants.
He estimates that there is
“about three-quarter million peo
ple in the district. About 25,000
Poles. A large Jewish commun
ity. A big Negro district,at the
north end. Around here, it’s
made up mostly of Germans and
Scandinavians. A few blocks
down is the only Mexican church
in Chicago.”
* # *
ON THE southern end of the
District is the largest housing
project in the city, Altgeld Gar
dens, made up of 15,000 residents,
95 percent of whom are Negroes.
More than 80 percent of Altgeld
Gardens’ male workers are mem
bers of the United Steelworkers
of America (CIO). •
Altgeld’s inner organization in
cludes one of the largest con
sumers’ cooperatives in the city.
Its leaders back Rowan. A po’iti
cal action committee of the com
munity is headed by Robert Ken
drick.
Republicans, who fought bitter
ly against building of the proj
ect, consider it the strongest sin
gle voting bloc in South Chicago.
It went almost 1 solidly for Roose
velt in 1944.
_* * *
IN FACT, so reckless and de
termined has been the furore
against Altgeld that this week
the pro-Republican Calumet In
dex, a widely circulated newspa
per in the district, is faced with
a libel suit from Altgeld resi
dents because of slanderous news
stories.
Vail, running on a platform to
“eradicate radicalism” is pic
tured by the Index as the savior
of South Chicago.
Second strongest independent
group backing Rowman is the
Independent Voters of Illinois
which has built up its strongest
units around the University of
Chicago area.
It’s 4th ward unit is headed by
A. S. Gourfain, Jr.; the sth ward
is lead by Mrs. Louise Strauss,
and Robert Kahn is the key or
ganizer of the 7th ward.
However, the most influential
Independent voters in the Second
District are the 40,000 steel
workers. Composed of the mixed
nationalities who make up the
area, the ClO’s United Steel
workers of America has already
backed Rowan but has just be
gun to open its registration drive. ’
Some 40% of USA members are
unregistered, union officials esti
mate.
Responsibility for mobilizing
USA for political action rests
mainly upon A1 Towers, new
president of the Chicago Indus
trial Union Council and Ed Brze
zinski, president of Local 65,
largest CIO local in Illinois with
9,000 members.
So openly anti-labor is Vail,
who has had constant conflict
with his own employees at his
steel-wire manufacturing plant,
that Charles McCarthy, recording
secretary of the local regards
Rowan’s victory as “an easy
thing.”
This viewpoint, however, is not
shared by the Democratic Na
tional Committee.
Despite the millions of dollars
poured into the Second District
by industrialists to push Vail,
the deciding factors here depend
mainly upon the activity of IVI
and PAC.
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| By SOL MARGO LIS
| THE STIFF PRICE for Ctti
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# * #
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p communities, denied their share
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ij ures, diseased bodies and a
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1 toll.
= “One of the best things about
| Chicago is that you don’t have
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